German minister wants to decriminalise dumpster diving

To tackle the problem of food waste, German Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir is looking to decriminalise the practice of rescuing food from rubbish containers, including outside supermarkets, called dumpster diving.

Read the original German article here.

In Germany, people who collect food from waste bins or supermarkets are liable for trespassing and theft.

But due to the offence being minor, prosecutions are usually only based on individual complaints, and some supermarkets even tolerate the practice.

According to Germany’s Green Agriculture Minister Özdemir, however, the practice should not even be punishable.

“Anyone who wants to save food that is still edible from waste containers should not be prosecuted for it,” he told the Rheinische Post on Monday (2 January).

“I think we would all like our police and courts to take care of criminals instead,” he added.

According to Özdemir, this should contribute to reducing the 11 million tons of food that are wasted each year in Germany.

While there is no “one solution” to solve the problem of food waste “in one fell swoop”, one has to “pragmatically look at where we can start”, he added.

It remains unclear, however, whether the minister’s plan will also find support among coalition partners, especially from Justice Minister Marco Buschmann of the liberal FDP. The coalition agreement agreed to at the start of the government’s mandate foresees the reduction of food waste, but does not mention the practice of dumpster diving.

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Fighting food waste

Since taking office, Özdemir has repeatedly stressed the need to cut down on wasted food.

This must be addressed as a priority instead of relying on increased agricultural production in Germany and the EU at the expense of environmental measures, he argued in the wake of Russia’s war in Ukraine that has strained global grain markets.

The key points of Germany’s food strategy, which Özdemir presented shortly before Christmas, also spell out the goal of halving food waste “in every sector of the food supply chain” by 2030.

According to the document, the National Food Waste Reduction Strategy that was adopted in 2019 will be further developed, while alterations to the country’s tort law and tax relief for food donations will be examined.

In addition, waste should also be minimised in communal catering in schools, hospitals or university canteens, for example through adapted portion sizes.

This brings the German government in line with the European Commission’s ambitions of halving food waste by 2030 as laid out in its flagship Farm to Fork Strategy.

[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald]

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